I was going to do a quick piece on the great theater we saw this weekend..including the christmas spectacular with the Rockettes(my god, 3d glasses, fireworks, ice skating, camels..it continues to be the show to see) but I was faced with our most recent patron problem..like we don't have enough.
This is an older woman with a walker and her quasi-sane son, who are heavy library users. They are here daily. He is a scruffy man in his early 50's, very thick glasses, not very attractive, who is now destined to live with his mother until her dying days. His mother shuffles in with her walker, which often is so slow, that i have winced as the automatic doors close as she enters. I have seen her caught in those doors twice, as her unaware son walks in before her to take care of library business. The more bigger issue in her odor. Now, I really thought my odor days were pretty much over when I left Pratt library and the homeless population. But no, I am not so fortunate and truly it was so bad, I finally had to have a heart to heart with her son.
No one wantes to have these kinds of conversations. They are uncomfortable and embarrassing. He told me she has a UTI that she can't get rid of despite all the antibiotics the doctor puts her on. Now really, a UTI that has been going on for 6 months? I tried being sensitive, offered a book of senior services to help caregivers, and told him that if she won't listen to him, perhaps the threat of never coming back to the library might encourage her to address the issue. Its sad, but how does her son not notice this? Not sure I got through. Perhaps we can time the visit so it's the same time as the sit down man, who smells like a musty basement. One might counteract the other.
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